MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and attorneys general from 21 other states have filed a friend of the court brief in opposition to a New York law banning certain kinds of semi-automatic weapons.

Strange was the lead author of the legal papers. They were filed in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as part of a lawsuit filed by organizations and individual gun owners who challenged the New York ban. Strange argues the law is unconstitutional because New York failed to show that banning semi-automatic weapons would increase public safety or decrease gun violence.